BUSINESS OF ART: Exploring New Art Worlds With Frédéric de Senarclens
ArtAndOnly is a powerful and integrated sales platform that connects collectors and artists to a network of professionals specializing in contemporary art across many disciplines. The platform provides artists with new ways to access the market, establish direct relationships and gain greater reach and exposure.
Recognising a trend from his buyers who were confident to buy online - a quarter of ArtPlural’s sales were online - Senerclens set about reshaping the gallery model by providing greater transparency and direct access to the market via ArtAndOnly - a powerful and integrated sales platform that connects collectors and artists.
After decade in Asia running one of the most successful galleries in Singapore, Frédéric de Senarclens has taken his passion and expertise and expanded into the exciting new world of global online markets. After Nyne's Editor Claire Meadows met with Frédéric last week to talk about ArtAndOnly and his own personal passion for art.
Frédéric, when did you decide that art world was the career path for you?
I have always been fascinated by art, and am attracted by different periods and styles, engaging with contemporary as well as antique. I’m fascinated by the creative process and am interested in the meanings behind a work, the story that brought an artist to create.
After graduating from University, I worked for an art dealer in Geneva who taught me extensively about the market. I met collectors, participated in fairs and dealt in impressionist and modern works. When I started, the market offered a number of opportunities for artists, collectors and young dealers. Today, the art world is global and it is such an exciting time to be a player in this environment. The digitalization of the market provides exciting new arenas and audiences.
Why do you think the art market endures when other markets rise and fall?
It is true that art market has been resilient to recent economy downfalls. I was actually amazed to see the market bouncing back so quickly in 2008/09. Everyone agrees that art has inherent, lasting value. Art will always remain a good investment as it normally offers robust response to external factors. Even more true today as the market is global and much more dynamic compared to the relatively recent past.
However, the market does rise and fall. Some artists that were extremely popular in the 1990’s or early 2000 have totally disappeared from the scene. It is always interesting to look at an old Christies’s or Sotheby’s contemporary art catalogue and look for the artists that are still active today. Furthermore, regional markets such as South Asian market for example have endured some heavy falls.
Tell us about the inspiration and ethos behind ArtAndOnly
ArtAndOnly is multi-cultural and global vision of the art world today. We’re a comprehensive web platform – and offer the exposure and service that we know artists and collectors have been looking for. We developed ArtAndOnly to take advantage of both our knowledge of both art and technology – and the ability to create a truly unique global online marketplace from the ground up.
Even with the physical space of our galleries in Switzerland and Singapore, we quickly identified the changing trends of collectors and began to use new media to not only source work from artists around the world, but also reach clients in many different countries. Our solid online presence with ArtPlural meant we already had the foundation of a truly global marketplace.
What are you providing that’s different to your competitors? What gives your service the edge?
We are signing extraordinary new artists and taking consignments of some extremely significant pieces of art. Because our secure storage is worldwide we can point buyers to the best, most collectable work in the country of their choice, and ensure secure viewings of any works in the collector’s own country.
With the gallery concept dematerialising, allowing for artists and collectors from all over the world to interact and transfer art – that is not new, but ArtAndOnly’s ability to offer viewings worldwide provides a unique solution for collectors, a truly global service.
Our latest collection of work includes works located in Basel, Switzerland, Hong Kong and New York. ArtAndOnly also conducts in depth interviews with our artists on their work and techniques which have proven popular with our followers, customers and art world audiences alike.
What do you look for when seeking artists for the service?
We’re a high-end platform. We specialise in contemporary art, by both established and emerging talent, across many disciplines including painting, sculpture, drawing, video, printmaking, photography but our main focus is, of course, on the quality of the work. We combine our expertise and eye for talent with numerous curators to evaluate and identify each piece’s quality, uniqueness and excellence. I am naturally looking for the best investment, but this is always led by the exceptional quality of the work.
Which artists are currently exciting you?
I have always loved sculpture and I am proud to feature works by American sculptor Jedd Novatt on ArtAndOnly, also sculptors like Bernar Venet, Yves Dana and Armen Agop.
There is globally an explosion of interest in Asian art - this is such an exciting creative place at the moment. Chinese artist Fu Lei, whom I discovered in China is a favourite. Chun Kwang Young, Nan Qi and Qiu Jie are other excellent artists with ArtAndOnly. We feature extraordinarily powerful work by the French painter Fabienne Verdier, whose work has recently been acquired by Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne.
What does 2017 hold for ArtAndOnly?
ArtAndOnly is at the centre of a revolution in the art world and as such we are, political upheavals aside, in an incredibly exciting time. I see the global art world’s move online as an expanding and unifying force, one that can only become stronger and more streamlined.
This is not a shift or a trend for the art market, but a radical and permanent improvement and has huge ramifications for the artist, their independence and freedom from the gallery and their work, which is liberated as a result. We can expect to see some extraordinary new global art.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in your career?
Following your vision. It can be tough but is always rewarding. A key moment for my wife Carole and I was our move to Singapore, and our decision to dedicate ourselves to art by opening our own gallery. I wanted to be surrounded by art and have my life led by art. Our move East expanded our view of the world and as a result our view of our lives. We are so much more open to other influences, other cultures, new ideas.
We took this expanded view into our work online and into ArtAndOnly. The web radically changed the art market and we were uniquely placed to embrace it. We have found our expertise, passion and experience has come together in the global marketplace we’ve created.
Find out more about ArtAndOnly here www.artandonly.com
